The Pit Stall

We get several emails over the course of the pre-season asking if we can handle all sorts of different Nascar pools.  Here’s a general outline of what we currently offer:

1. Salary Cap

Each team is given $1000 to pick exactly 8 drivers for the season.  You can select any 8 drivers as long as you keep your total salary for your team at or under $1000.  Trades are an option.  Picking teams online is also an option.  Number of drivers and salaries are not customizable.

2. Pick’em

There are 5 groups of drivers, grouped by previous performance.  Select one driver from each group for each race.  If you select a driver for the 6th race, he will be added to all of the following races as well.  Selections can be modified up until the weekly deadline which is generally 12pm (Noon) Eastern on the day of qualifying.  Daytona 500 and scheduled qualifying sessions beginning before this time, will be an exception.  Number of drivers and the groups are not customizable.  Picking online is an option.

3. Pick’em – All

Similar to the  Pick’em Style, but there are no groups.  Select the pre-determined number of drivers for each race out of all available drivers, prior to the weekly deadline.  Number of drivers is customizable.  Picking online is an option.

4. Pick One

Also similar to the Pick’em Style, but you only select one driver for each race, prior to the deadline.  Several leagues using this option also have limits on when and how many times a driver can be selected.  The site doesn’t have these limits set, but commissioners can modify ‘illegal’ picks (according to their rules) if need be.  Picking online is an option.

5. Box

There are 8 groups set up prior to the season.  Pick one car or driver from each of the groups.  Groups are not customizable.  Picks can be made online.  Trades are also an option.

6. Custom

There are basically two sides to ‘Custom’ leagues.  One is you use a set up similar to one of the non-pick’em styles above, but would prefer to customize your own groups or salaries.  All of the cars/drivers are listed, and the commissioner handles the submission of all of the teams.  The number of cars/drivers per team is customizable.  Trades are still allowed, but must be processed by the commissioner.  Picking teams online isn’t an option, as all teams have to be submitted by the commissioner.

The other ‘custom’ option is you let us know how your pool works, and we can work on setting something up for you.  We don’t gaurantee we can set up any type of pool, but if it’s different than anything else we have, we’ll consider it.  We set up a number of custom pool types last year, and have a couple more in the works for this year.  Maybe we’ll add descriptions of some of them, and make them available for selection.

You can also check out our various scoring options.

Filed under: Nascar Pool Help, Site by Site Admin - Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
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We have several scoring methods set up as default options, and we also have a number of custom methods. Here’s an outline all of the different options that are currently available.  New methods will be added once they’ve been used for a full season.

1. Standard Points

Uses the Nascar Championship points scoring system.  Can choose whether or not to count penalties.  Highest score wins.

2. Standard Points – Drop Lowest

Uses the Standard Points method, and the lowest score for that race is dropped.  Can choose whether or not to count penalties.  If counting penalties, the lowest score after the penalty is applied is dropped.  Highest score wins.

3. Standard Points – Modified

Uses the Standard Points method for all cars/drivers making the field, and awards 29 points to all cars/drivers that do not.  Highest score wins.

4. Finish

Your points for the race include the finishing position of the car/driver.  If your car/driver finishes 1st, you get one point, and if they finish 30th, 30 points, etc.  If your car/driver doesn’t make the field for whatever reason, they get 75 points.  There are 2 bonuses awarded, one for the pole if qualifying is contested (-10 pts) and one for the most laps led in the race (-5 pts).  Lowest score wins.

5. Top 10

Points are only awarded to the top 10 finishers of the race.  If your car/driver finishes 1st, you get 10 points, 2nd, 9 pts and so on down to 10th place which receives 1 point.  All others are awarded no points.  Highest score wins.

6. Redline (Custom)

The Redline scoring method is a variation on the Finish method.  Points are still awarded by the finish position, but a laps led bonus is -1 point, with winning the pole (whether quals are contested or not) also being worth -1 point.  The race winning car/driver is also awarded a -2 point bonus.  All cars/drivers not participating in the race for whatever reason receive 44 points.  There is a Chase reset in this method and should really only be used for the Redline pool since the reset it limited to a specific number of teams.  Lowest score wins. 

7. Capper (Custom)

The Capper scoring method is a variation on the Top 10 method.  Instead of the top 10 receiving points, it is now the top 15, from 15 points for first, down to 1 point for 15th.  Winning the pole is also a 5 point bonus.  Highest score wins.

8. Riverton (Custom)

The Riverton scoring method is similar to the Top 10 method, except points are awarded to all cars/drivers in a race.  The first place car/driver gets 45 points, 2nd place, 44 points and so on, down to 3 points for 43rd.  There is a 5 point bonus for leading the most laps, as well as a 5 point bonus for winning a pole (if qualifying is contested – except the Daytona 500).  Highest score wins.

If you have a scoring method you want to use for your league, send us a message, and we’ll try to incorporate it.  We started with only the 3 basic methods (Standard, Finish & Top 10) and have worked with other leagues to make their method work as well.

Filed under: Nascar Pool Help, Site by Site Admin - Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
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Once your league is set up, you’ll need to get all of teams entered.  There are basically two ways to go about this.  Enter them yourself as the commish, or if your pool allows online selections, have people register for the site and add their teams themselves.

Picking Your Team

1. Register and/or Login to the site.
2. If you haven’t already (and aren’t the commish), use the ID and password created by the commish to join the league.
3. Once you’re on the league home page, you can select ‘Pick Team’ from the league menu.
4. If it’s any of the Pick’em style leagues, you just have to submit your team name, and your picks will be defaulted to the first driver in each group alphabetically.  If it’s not a Pick’em style league, submit your team name and select your cars or drivers and click ‘Add Team’.

You should now show up in the team list.  Your team name and overall stats should also show up under your league on your home page whenever you log in.  To make your selections for any of the Pick’em style leagues, you can get to the picks page by selecting your team from the team list, or by clicking the ‘P’ button on the races list.

Adding a Team – Commish

As the Commish of a league, you have the ability to submit your participants picks, as well as modify them in case of error. 

1. From anywhere inside of your league, select ‘Add Team’.  This option will only show up for league commissioners. 
2. Enter the team name, and select the cars or drivers for that team.  You can also enter an email address to notify that person that their team has been submitted.  The email will contain the league ID and password for them to register and join the league.
3. Click the ‘Add Team’ button.

So there’s the basics in adding teams to your fantasy Nascar leagues.  Next up will be some basic steps for managing your league.

Filed under: Nascar Pool Help, Site by Site Admin - Thursday, January 21st, 2010
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To help out all of the new commissioners on Nascar Pools Online this coming season, we’ve put together some quick step by step instructions on setting up a fantasy Nascar pool on the site.

Creating Your League

1. Register and/or Login to the site.
2. Go to the Create League page and give your league a name, a login ID and a password. The ID and password will be used by your poolies to join the league.
3. Select your pool type, and the duration of your season and click the Create League button.

You should now be on the league settings page. You can select the rest of your league options from here. Some options are pre-determined by the pool type you selected on the first page.  The league settings will generally only be able to be modified BEFORE you start submitting/accepting teams.

Selecting League Settings

1. Choose whether you want to score by the car or the driver.  If you choose by car, you’ll get the points for that car, regardless of who is behind the wheel.
2. Select the number of cars or drivers on each team.  All of the default pool types available will have this pre-selected and wont be able to be changed.  If you require more or less drivers/cars per team than in the options, let us know and we can modify it manually for you.
3. Choose your scoring method.  We have a number of options available, including several custom options that other pools use.  If you have a scoring method for your pool that you would like added select ‘Custom’ and contact us to follow up.  If your pool requires a Chase reset, you will need to do this, as no non-custom scoring methods have a reset.
4. If your pool uses one of the ‘Standard’ scoring methods, you can choose to count penalties against your standings.  This will be ignored for all other league types.
5. Select whether or not your league will allow trades, and if there is a cap on trades, put in how many you want it capped at.
6. If you are using one of the default pool types (Salary, Box, Pick’em and Pick One) you can allow teams to be selected online.  You don’t have to, but you do have that option.
7. If you have allowed trades, and are using one of the default pool types you can allow teams to make their trades online.  If you have specific rules about who you can trade and when you can make trades, you’ll want to leave this blank and have the commissioner be responsible for all trades.
8. If you would like your league publicly viewable, you can select this option, which will make available a page where people can view the overall standings without logging into the site.  They wont be able to view team information or race by race results or standings.  The URL for this page will be included in your welcome email upon league creation.

Your league login ID and password are included at the bottom of this page in case you ever forget what they were.  Once you have your league ready for teams, send out an email with this league ID and password.  Remind people that they have to register their own accounts on the site, and then use the info you give them to join the league.  They will only have to do so one time.

Hopefully that helps you get started on getting your league up and running on the site.  We will add a follow-up post in the near future with how to add your teams, and work your way around managing your league now that it’s set up.

Filed under: Nascar Pool Help, Site by Site Admin - Sunday, January 17th, 2010
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We’ve started putting together the default driver groups and salaries for the upcoming season.  The following are what we are leaning towards for the coming season.  There may be some additions and some small changes prior to Sunday when we add the salaries to the site, and make leagues publically available. 

Driver Salaries

If there is someone running at least a part time schedule that you think should be added, send us a message.

We’ve also posted our potential 2010 Nascar Pool Driver Groups.

Filed under: Site by Site Admin - Monday, January 11th, 2010
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We’ve started putting together the default driver groups and salaries for the upcoming season.  Of course things are still up in the air with several teams, so these are currently ‘potential’ groups.  The first six groups of the box pools are pretty firm, but there may be some changes by Sunday of the final two groups. The first four Pick’em groups are set. We wont be posting the box groups by car, but they’ll follow these quite closely.

Box Style Leagues

Other options for the final 2 groups depending on their status later this week are Joe Nemechek, Dave Blaney and Michael Waltrip.

Pick’em Style Leagues

The final group in this one will be a selection of 20 – 24 of the remaining drivers, including the rest of the full-time teams, some part timers, and a few road course specialists.

We’ve also posted our potential 2010 Nascar Pool Driver Salaries.

Filed under: Site by Site Admin - Monday, January 11th, 2010
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This is the third part of the Nascar Pool Help series.   Part 1   Part 2

Now that you’ve decided the set-up and scoring method your pool will use, your next task is formalizing some rules, and inviting people to participate in your pool.  This is probably the first time you’ll need to put something on paper (or the internet). 

You’ll want to describe in detail how your pool will be run.  The rules regarding how drivers (or cars) are selected and how scoring is calculated are the most important.  The rest isn’t important unless people understand what they’re getting into.  Also add payment amounts, deadlines, and methods, and the general payout structure, or at least a date when it will be announced.  Make sure you have someone else examine it for mistakes, or things you may have overlooked.  Add a second page to the rules which will have your groups, or your selection information, and can be used as the entry form, if you’re accepting teams offline.  Include a spot for team name and whatever contact information is necessary.  If you plan on only having people make their selections online, you wont need the entry sheet, but giving people the information to make their selections is a good idea.  If you plan to use some pre-made pool set-up like Yahoo!, you can pretty much just skip rules altogether as they have an extensive list on their site.  You can just add the payment info on the invitation emails.

Once you’ve decided on rules and prepared some sort of document (I generally like to convert them to PDF format, since the reader software is freely available), you’ll need to round up some participants.  Make a list of friends, co-workers or associates that you know are Nascar fans.  Then make a list of those people that you know are generally up for pretty much any type of fantasy sports.  Give each one of them the info about your pool, and invite them to participate, either by email, a phone call or even better, in person.  Encourage them to invite their Nascar fan friends.  The larger your pool is, and the bigger the payout gets, the more casual the fan you’ll get to participate, as they’re more interested in the prize than the actual pool.
 
Growing your pool wont happen overnight, but if you make your rules easy to follow, make your results easy to access and most importantly keep everything transparent, you should have no problem experiencing growth through several seasons.  Even the largest pools had modest beginnings.  I’m in a pool for another sport that has close to 500 teams, only a few years removed from having less than 50.  Make your pool both affordable and fun, and people will want to share it with others.

Filed under: Nascar Pool Help, Site by Site Admin - Thursday, January 7th, 2010
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